FLOAT 100 · Memorabilia · No. 43
Napoleon's Bicorne Hat
Napoleon wore his two-cornered hat sideways so his soldiers could find him in the smoke, and in 2023 one faded, cracked survivor of the roughly 120 he owned sold for more than twice its estimate days before Hollywood put him back on screen.
- Year
- early 1800s
- Maker
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- By price in memorabilia
- 42 of 100
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Create a free account- Object
- Black felt bicorne hat with a blue, white and red cockade
- Worn by
- Napoleon I, Emperor of the French
- When
- Toward the middle of his reign as emperor, according to the sellers
- How he wore it
- 'En bataille': corners pointing to the shoulders, while most officers wore theirs front to back
- First recovered by
- Col. Pierre Baillon, a quartermaster under Napoleon, according to the sellers
- Last private owner
- Jean-Louis Noisiez, French industrialist and collector, who died in 2022
- How many survive
- About 20 authentic hats, roughly 15 of them in museums, of about 120 Napoleon is believed to have owned
- Sold
- 1,932,000 euros, reported as about $2.1 million, at auction in France on November 19, 2023
A hat made to be seen
The bicorne descended from the three-cornered tricorne and was widely adopted in the 1790s as military headgear across Europe. It was a black hat with a broad brim turned up front and back and pinned together into a fan shape, usually with a cockade in the national colors. It saw heavy use through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
In the 1790s it was worn side to side. From about 1800 most armies and navies turned it fore and aft. Napoleon did not. He kept the corners lined up with his shoulders, a style called 'en bataille,' which gave him a silhouette his troops could pick out on a battlefield. The French gendarmerie kept the side-to-side style until about 1904, and Italy's Carabinieri still wear it that way in full dress.
The hat sold in 2023 is in his trademark colors, black with a blue-white-red cockade. One report says Napoleon added the cockade himself in 1815, on his voyage from exile on Elba back to France; the claim was not repeated in the other accounts of the sale and is best treated as tradition.
The man under the hat
Napoleon Bonaparte was born Napoleone di Buonaparte on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, to a family of Italian origin. He moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned in the French Royal Army in 1785. He rose fast during the Revolution: the siege of Toulon in 1793, the defense of the Convention in Paris in 1795, the Italian campaign of 1796 and the invasion of Egypt in 1798.
By the Constitution of the Year VIII, introduced in December 1799, he became first consul. He was proclaimed Emperor of the French on May 18, 1804, and crowned at Notre-Dame on December 2, 1804, placing on his own head a replica of Charlemagne's crown. His civil code took effect in March 1804 and still shapes law across Europe and beyond.
Victory at Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, Jena-Auerstedt in 1806 and Friedland in 1807 gave him much of the continent. Then came the war in Spain from 1808 and the invasion of Russia in 1812, whose retreat from Moscow cost him most of his army. He abdicated in 1814, was exiled to Elba, returned for the Hundred Days in 1815, lost at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, and died in exile on Saint Helena on May 5, 1821.
From quartermaster to collector
According to the sellers, the hat was first recovered by Col. Pierre Baillon, a quartermaster under Napoleon and his comrade in many battles, including Waterloo. It then passed through many hands before the industrialist Jean-Louis Noisiez acquired it. Noisiez spent more than half a century assembling Napoleonic memorabilia, firearms, swords and coins before he died in 2022.
Accounts of the hat's path differ. One report reverses the two men, calling Noisiez the quartermaster who worked at Napoleon's palace and Baillon the industrialist, and says the hat stayed in one family through the 19th century. The wire-service account, which says the hat passed through many hands, is followed here, but the details of its 19th-century ownership are not settled in the published record.
The sellers placed the hat in the middle years of the empire. One report of the sale gave those years as 1808 to 1815, which is wrong: Napoleon was emperor from 1804.
November 2023
The Noisiez collection went on view in Paris on November 6, 2023, and in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, by November 17. The hat was the centerpiece, estimated at 600,000 to 800,000 euros. Alongside it were a mahogany vanity case bearing the imperial arms with razors, a silver toothbrush and scissors, a nightshirt from Saint Helena, and a silver plate engraved as taken from Napoleon's carriage at Waterloo, part of a 180-kilogram haul of silverware looted in the French retreat.
On Sunday, November 19, bidding ran well past the estimate. The hammer fell at 1.5 million euros to applause, and with 28.8 percent in fees the buyer paid 1,932,000 euros, reported as $2.11 million. That was nearly four times the reserve price. The buyer's name and nationality were not released.
Reports disagree on where the hammer fell. The wire-service account sets the sale in Fontainebleau, where the auction firm is based; other reports place it in Paris. The timing was not in dispute: the sale came three days before Ridley Scott's film Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix, opened on November 22.
How many survive
Napoleon is believed to have owned about 120 bicornes over some 15 years, and most are lost. The auctioneer put the authentic survivors at about 20, roughly 15 of them in museums, leaving four or five in private hands. In 2014 the count was given as 19.
The previous record belonged to a different hat. In 2014 the princely family of Monaco sold Napoleonic memorabilia gathered by Prince Louis II, including a bicorne said to have been worn at the Battle of Marengo in 1800. A South Korean collector paid about 1.9 million euros, reported as $2.4 million; the exact figure was later given as 1,884,000 euros. The 2023 hat beat it in euros by 48,000.
Hats with a Napoleon story appear regularly. In October 2021 a newly discovered hat with DNA evidence linking it to Napoleon was offered in London. What sets the Noisiez hat apart is its condition, faded and cracked from use, and a provenance that begins, according to the sellers, with an officer who served beside him.
Timeline
Napoleone di Buonaparte is born in Ajaccio, Corsica.
He is commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army.
He wins attention at the siege of Toulon.
The Constitution of the Year VIII makes him first consul.
He fights the Battle of Marengo, in a bicorne later sold in 2014.
Napoleon is proclaimed Emperor of the French.
He is crowned at Notre-Dame de Paris.
He wins the Battle of Austerlitz.
He marries Marie Louise of Austria after the annulment of his marriage to Joséphine.
His exile on Elba begins after his first abdication.
He leaves Elba to begin the Hundred Days.
He is defeated at Waterloo; the hat's first recorded keeper, Col. Pierre Baillon, served in the campaign, according to the sellers.
Napoleon dies in exile on Saint Helena.
A different Napoleon bicorne, linked to Marengo, sells to a South Korean collector for about 1.9 million euros.
Collector Jean-Louis Noisiez dies.
The hat is shown to the press in Paris ahead of the sale.
The hat sells at auction in France for 1,932,000 euros, a record for a Napoleon hat.
Ridley Scott's Napoleon opens in theaters.
The world in 1803
Napoleon sells Louisiana to the United States for $15 million, doubling the young country's size.
The French civil code, later called the Napoleonic Code, takes effect.
The Royal Navy wins the Battle of Trafalgar; Napoleon's fleet never seriously challenges it again.
Napoleon defeats Prussia at Jena-Auerstedt.
He defeats Russia at Friedland.
He installs his brother Joseph as King of Spain, opening a long war in the peninsula.
Napoleon enters Moscow; the city burns the next evening, and the retreat that follows destroys his army.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 19, 2023 | $2,110,000 | Sold at auction1,932,000 euros including fees (hammer 1.5 million euros), sold at auction in France; reported as $2.11 million. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Napoleon's Bicorne Hat is number 42 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (43 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Napoleon's sideways style has a name: 'en bataille,' or 'in battle.'
- The hammer price was 1.5 million euros; fees of 28.8 percent took the total to 1,932,000 euros.
- The price was nearly four times the seller's reserve.
- The same sale offered a silver plate engraved as taken from Napoleon's carriage at Waterloo.
- At his coronation Napoleon crowned himself, with a replica of Charlemagne's crown.
- Italy's Carabinieri still wear the bicorne side to side, the way Napoleon did, in full dress.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026